(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a push lock switch apparatus for a vehicle, and more particularly, to a push lock switch apparatus for a vehicle that provides a cost reduction and simplified structure.
(b) Background Art
In recent years, as luxurious vehicles are manufactured, the number of electrical equipments mounted on a vehicle is greatly increasing. Accordingly, the types of switches provided to control the operations of the electrical equipment is also being diversified. A push lock switch which is mainly used is among the various types of switches. The above push lock switch is configured to execute a repeated on/off operation upon repeated pushes and is widely used for a vehicle indoor lamp, an air conditioner operation switch, various industrial apparatuses, etc. For example, a push lock switch is installed to execute the on/off operations of an indoor lamp installed within a vehicle. The push lock switch includes a knob, a plunger, a case and an upper cover having a connection terminal. A lock pin locking unit is disposed on the lower surface in the inside of the case.
The above push lock switch is assembled to an indoor lamp of a vehicle. When the plunger is pushed by the knob, the plunger maintains a forwardly moved state. At the same time, a movable ground plate of the plunger contacts a fixed ground plate of the cover and thus, electric power is supplied and the indoor lamp may be turned on. In particular, when the plunger is pushed again by the knob, the plunger will return to an initial position by the force of a return spring, and the movable ground plate of the plunger moves out of the fixed ground plate of the cover, and the electric power supply is disconnected to turn off the indoor lamp.
Such a push lock switch requires many components for the operations described above, and accordingly has a complex structure. Therefore, decreasing the number of components and simplifying a structure are important in producing a push lock switch. For the sake of the above-described functions, the push lock switch apparatus requires a lot of components, which inevitably entails complex configurations. Considering this problem, it is important to simplify the configurations to reduce the number of necessary components when manufacturing the push lock switch.